TextEdit has its roots in OPENSTEP, where it was used as kind of a demo application of the text views IIRC. It even came with source code, as did Chess by the way.
So I guess a comparison between TextEdit and Pages doesn't make too much sense probably, they're really different things.
> TextEdit [...] was used as kind of a demo application of the text views IIRC. even came with source code, as did Chess by the way.
On the other side of the fence, WordPad initially came with source code as well, and was essentially a demo app for the rich edit control as well as the criminally underused text converters[1].
I had to change some .strings file encoding settings and set the build target to macOS 14, but other than that and a few deprecation warnings, it built just fine in Xcode 27.2 on Tahoe 26.7.2.
>a comparison between TextEdit and Pages doesn't make too much sense probably, they're really different things
Both can and are be used for writing, and for basic rich text editing, on top of the other stuff Pages can do, so it makes total sense to compare them for this purpose.
Pages is an underrated Word Processor. It has the lessons of 30 years of development and experimentation of WYSIWYG editors distilled and applied in a tight little package.
My pet peeve is that every single time you click any web link in PDFs, you have to confirm via a dialog that you want to visit a link. You used to just be able to click links.
The team that created Pages, before that they were GoBe Productive for BeOS, and before that Clarris, so Pages is their 3rd or 4th redesign from scratch.
My main issue with Pages is that it doesn't allow plugins like Word does. I'm a heavy Zotero user so a lack of Zotero plugin means I can't use Pages for anything meaningful.
Stationery Pads are one of the almost criminally underused and well-hidden features that have been around since the Mac OS (pre-OSX) days.
Another one is Cmd+H for hiding an app. People often minimize the current window to see the next app underneath, while hiding the current app is much more elegant and creates a lot less friction for restoring it later.
Also Pages also has a fairly decent print design mode. Sure, it can't compete with something like Indesign in feature parity, but I find it pretty useful to do posters, booklets, flyers and the like. It's free and fairly intuitive to use.
I’ve been a TextEdit-only user for years. I write notes as quick streams of consciousness for me to pick up later. TextEdit is great, but I have similar qualms as the author, and I also have been wanting something that allowed me to build some programmatic tooling around the short notes I write (ie: format these and move them to my Todo list). I’ve been working on a very simple app that is rock solid like TextEdit, but with some niceties for using it as a notes app, instead of a rich text editor.
>Honestly, who needs buttons for bold and italic? Or left, center, and right justification?
Almost every layman user? - at least for the latter, as there are well known shortcuts for the former many know.
>An advantage of TextEdit that Allison points out and which I concede: TextEdit uses much less memory than Pages. I wish that weren’t the case, but I have a 48 GB MacBook Pro, so I can afford to be profligate with RAM.
You can't be profligate with the TextEdit vs Pages level RAM use on a fucking 48GB laptop? I can be way more profligate (sic) even on 16GB or 8GB laptops.
Oh, and his other issue is you can't hide TextEdit's menubar and it takes space from the document. That for one of the more streamlined, and to the point, menubars in the history of GUI software...
I'm all for a good app review or even a good app putdown, but these guy's pet peeves, which he blows up into major issues when he's picking one or the other app are really bizarre.
TextEdit has its roots in OPENSTEP, where it was used as kind of a demo application of the text views IIRC. It even came with source code, as did Chess by the way.
So I guess a comparison between TextEdit and Pages doesn't make too much sense probably, they're really different things.
> TextEdit [...] was used as kind of a demo application of the text views IIRC. even came with source code, as did Chess by the way.
On the other side of the fence, WordPad initially came with source code as well, and was essentially a demo app for the rich edit control as well as the criminally underused text converters[1].
[1] https://www.malsmith.net/wincvt/
Source code, published until OS X 10.9: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/TextE...
Wonder if it can be still compiled for modern Apple Silicon MacOS given Cocoa have been pretty much removed
Cocoa hasn't been removed.
I had to change some .strings file encoding settings and set the build target to macOS 14, but other than that and a few deprecation warnings, it built just fine in Xcode 27.2 on Tahoe 26.7.2.
Carbon was removed, not Cocoa
>a comparison between TextEdit and Pages doesn't make too much sense probably, they're really different things
Both can and are be used for writing, and for basic rich text editing, on top of the other stuff Pages can do, so it makes total sense to compare them for this purpose.
It's not like we're comparing Excel vs Lightroom.
It's like comparing Apple Photos to Lightoom maybe.
Wordpad to Word. Ted (GTK2 build, it's an RTF editor) to Libreoffice Writer.
Yes. Which, for people needing some light editing and archiving, it's a useful comparison.
Even before OPENSTEP. And you can still build TextEdit on Linux or BSD. So, it is the cross-platform option.
I ran it for years on Linux.
Pages is an underrated Word Processor. It has the lessons of 30 years of development and experimentation of WYSIWYG editors distilled and applied in a tight little package.
The same goes for Preview.app - it's a very underrated, super powerful app for PDF editing and lots of other stuff.
It arguably gets worse with every OS X iteration. I understand why they removed postscript support, but it still makes me sad.
But it can still do a lot.
My pet peeve is that every single time you click any web link in PDFs, you have to confirm via a dialog that you want to visit a link. You used to just be able to click links.
I’ve never seen that, I use Safari. My nit about PDFs is pages that download the PDF rather than view them within the browser.
It does have a lot of polish. I'm just a bit sore that it no longer supports PostScript.
The team that created Pages, before that they were GoBe Productive for BeOS, and before that Clarris, so Pages is their 3rd or 4th redesign from scratch.
My main issue with Pages is that it doesn't allow plugins like Word does. I'm a heavy Zotero user so a lack of Zotero plugin means I can't use Pages for anything meaningful.
You should be able to create and use templates for TextEdit using the Stationery Pad feature which comes built-in to macOS:
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1341/mac
Stationery Pads are one of the almost criminally underused and well-hidden features that have been around since the Mac OS (pre-OSX) days.
Another one is Cmd+H for hiding an app. People often minimize the current window to see the next app underneath, while hiding the current app is much more elegant and creates a lot less friction for restoring it later.
Which of these hidden champions did I forget?
I’d never seen that. Thank you for sharing!
Also Pages also has a fairly decent print design mode. Sure, it can't compete with something like Indesign in feature parity, but I find it pretty useful to do posters, booklets, flyers and the like. It's free and fairly intuitive to use.
" A note for someone who’s coming over to water my plants while I’m out of town shouldn’t look like an analysis of a mobile crane tipover accident. "
Love this. Humor.
I’ve been a TextEdit-only user for years. I write notes as quick streams of consciousness for me to pick up later. TextEdit is great, but I have similar qualms as the author, and I also have been wanting something that allowed me to build some programmatic tooling around the short notes I write (ie: format these and move them to my Todo list). I’ve been working on a very simple app that is rock solid like TextEdit, but with some niceties for using it as a notes app, instead of a rich text editor.
Feedback appreciated! https://jort.app/
Pages is lovely, I like how intuitive it is to use (Numbers too)
Truly a lot more user friendly than Microsoft Office.
>Honestly, who needs buttons for bold and italic? Or left, center, and right justification?
Almost every layman user? - at least for the latter, as there are well known shortcuts for the former many know.
>An advantage of TextEdit that Allison points out and which I concede: TextEdit uses much less memory than Pages. I wish that weren’t the case, but I have a 48 GB MacBook Pro, so I can afford to be profligate with RAM.
You can't be profligate with the TextEdit vs Pages level RAM use on a fucking 48GB laptop? I can be way more profligate (sic) even on 16GB or 8GB laptops.
Oh, and his other issue is you can't hide TextEdit's menubar and it takes space from the document. That for one of the more streamlined, and to the point, menubars in the history of GUI software...
I'm all for a good app review or even a good app putdown, but these guy's pet peeves, which he blows up into major issues when he's picking one or the other app are really bizarre.
The review can’t be that bad. I signed up for text edit and bought it.
Vs emacs?
Give me KDE Kate, or give me death!
Kate is a text editor, TextEdit and Pages are word processors. I'd also love Kate (or Notepad++) on macos, they're just kinda a non sequitur.
TextEdit is a text editor, which has had an optional WYSIWYG word processing mode added to it --- hit cmd shift t to go into text edit mode.